High Tc superconductors

Schematic of the YBCO unit cell.

TEM micrograph showing twinning in YBCO, with inset diffraction pattern.

High temperature superconducting materials hold great promise in applications ranging from large superconducting magnets to small SQUID magnetometers. However, achieving high critical current densities remains a formidable challenge. Our research focuses on the study of nucleation and growth phenomena in superconducting thin films, and their effect on the formation of defects such as grain boundaries and second-phase precipitates. The understanding of the effect of processing on the structure and the subsequent electrical property is necessary to fully exploit these superconducting thin films for practical electronic applications.

Collaborators

A. Anderson, MIT Lincoln Labs

Papers
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D. Bhatt, S. N. Basu, A. C. Westerheim and Alfredo C. Anderson, "Microstructural Dependence of Sputtered YBa₂Cu₃O_7-xThin Films on Deposition Parameters", Physica C 222 (3/4), 283 (1994).

A. C. Westerheim, Alfredo C. Anderson, D. E. Oats, S. N. Basu, D. Bhatt and M. J. Cima, "Relation Between Electrical Properties and Microstructure of YBa₂Cu₃O_7-xThin Films Deposited by Single-Target Off-Axis Sputtering", J. Appl. Physics 75 (1), 393 (1994).

A. C. Westerheim, P. McIntyre, S. N. Basu, D. Bhatt, L. S. Yu-Jahnes, Alfredo C. Anderson and M. J. Cima, "Comparison of the Surface Morphology and Microstructure of In Situ and Ex Situ Derived YBa₂Cu₃O_7-xThin Films", J. Elect. Mat. 22 (9), 1113 (1993).

S. N. Basu, "A Study of Microstructures of YBa₂Cu₃O_7-xThin Films", Proceedings of the International Conference on Beam Processing of Advanced Materials, J. Singh and S. M. Copley eds., TMS, pp 333 (1993).

S. N. Basu, T. E. Mitchell and M. Nastasi, "Electron Beam Irradiation Effects in Bulk YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x", J. Appl. Physics 69 (5), 3167 (1991).

S. N. Basu, A. H. Carim and T. E. Mitchell, "A TEM Study of Microstructures in YBa₂Cu₃O_7-xThin Films Deposited in LaAlO3 by Laser Ablation", J. Materials Research 6 (9), 1823 (1991).

Funding

MIT Lincoln Labs - TEM Investigation of Superconducting Thin Films and Multilayers (with A. Anderson).

LANL - Structure of Ferroelectric Superconducting Interfaces.